By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
The Moapa Valley High School Girls Soccer team played their first game on the new Jeff Keel Stadium field which ended in a 5-0 victory against Desert Pines High School of Las Vegas. The game took place on Tuesday, Aug. 31.
The match got off to a slow start as both teams took their time getting warmed up. The first half of the game went completely scoreless.
This early game wasn’t the first time this season that the Lady Pirates had faced off against the Jaguars. The two teams had met at a tournament on the previous Thursday and the Pirates had triumphed 4-1.
“So we knew that we could beat them,” said MVHS Head Coach Lisa Cornwall. “It just took our girls a while to get in gear.”
“We were able to move the ball around the field and keep control of things during the first half,” Cornwall said. “We were just not finishing and getting the goals.”
But early in the second half, MVHS sophomore Hanna Fullmer opened the game up with the first goal for the Pirates. Once Fullmer had blazed the trail, the Lady Pirates were finally able to find their way to the goal; and they did so often.
“Once we scored that first one, forget about it!” said Cornwall.
Fullmer went on to score three goals in the game for a hat trick. Talli Fairchild scored one goal and Mallory Tobler put the other one in the net for the Pirates.
It was a team effort for the Pirates, though. The string of goals came with a host of assists from other strong teammates. Brooke Sherwood chalked up two assists in the match, while Paige Fairchild and Taytum Yardley each got one.
“It is early in the season yet and we are still getting our feet under us,” Cornwall said. “But this game showed that once we figure it out and lock things in, we will do well.”
Last week’s win gives the Lady Pirates an overall 4-1 record.
On Tuesday, Aug. 24, the Western High School team forfeited to the Pirates in their first contest of the season.
The Moapa girls then went up against Durango High School on Wednesday, Aug. 25 and won 5-1. Abbie Hammons had three goals in that game. Talli Fairchild and Mallory Tobler each put away one goal to round out the final score. Fairchild also got two assists and Hannah Fullmer got one assist in the game.
After the team won that previous tournament matchup against Desert Pines, they faced Spring Valley on Saturday, Aug. 28. Here they got their only loss for the season with a final score of 1-0.
The Pirates will host two home matches this week. The girls will play against Legacy on Thursday, Sept. 9. Then they go up against a tough Cimarron-Memorial team on Friday night at 6:30 pm on the home field. Since Pirate Football has a bye for this week, this game will offer the Friday Night Lights experience for the week.
